


Ways To Say Thank You

by Weevilo707



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Episode: e060-066 The Stolen Century Parts 1-7, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Team as Family, it's happy until it's sad okay, taako and barry are best friends and care about each other lots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-15
Updated: 2017-11-15
Packaged: 2019-02-02 18:12:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12731682
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Weevilo707/pseuds/Weevilo707
Summary: One hundred years is a long time to get to know someone. Five minutes is a short time to forget about them.





	Ways To Say Thank You

Barry hadn’t realized they were twins at first. 

Or well, he hadn’t known that there was two of them to begin with, because if he had then yes, the fact that they were twins would’ve been obvious. He’d only met Lup though, once before during one of the last training sessions for the IPRE mission. And even then, he hadn’t quite met her more so then watched as she dazzled their supervisor by managing to spellshape a fireball so that it somehow managed not to damage anyone or anything in the room they were in. 

Maybe Barry was a little dazzled too, and also terrified. She was so much to take in, and he got the feeling that being around her was like being encased in that barely contained fireball, suffocating and exhilarating. 

And then a week later, they announced the finalized list of the crew for the Extra-planar mission. Barry was more surprised to see his own name up there than he was to see Lup’s. Of course she’d get accepted, her magic was incredible and her presence was just as powerful, Barry couldn’t imagine anyone turning her down. 

So, when Barry caught sight of Lup walking in his direction in the IPRE headquarters he steeled his nerves. They were going to be working together for two months, on a crew of only seven, it would be best to get introductions out of the way as soon as possible. Try and minimize the amount of awkwardness all around.

“Um, excuse me? It's Lup right? I’m Barry, uh, I’m gonna be on the Extra-planar mission with you. I thought I’d just uh, introduce myself. I mean I’ve seen you around before and maybe you've seen me, I don't know, but I haven’t actually said anything and uh,” Barry trailed off, so much for keeping the awkwardness on the low end. Lup was just looking at him kind of confused, before a downright scary smile spread across her face and she leaned against one of the walls of the hallway. 

“Mhmm, Barry huh? Right right, nice to meet ya, all that jazz. You’re gonna be on the Starblaster too huh? Interesting,” Lup said, looking him over and something felt off. Her voice sounded different from what he remembered, and there was just something _different._

“Yeah, uh,” he said, and he knew he didn’t know Lup yet but he remembered, her hair had been bright red at the tips. She could’ve used magic to change her hairstyle though, he supposed. 

“Something wrong my dude?” she asked, and there was definitely something making her amused. He wasn’t sure what, and maybe it was him being an awkward dumbass but the look in this person’s eyes was different from what he’d seen in Lup’s. Something slier, just as deadly but carefully contained rather than the untamed explosive force and-

“You’re not Lup, are you?” he asked, and the amusement dropped from this person’s face instantly. They actually looked shocked, and for a second Barry worried that he was completely wrong and had somehow made an even bigger idiot of himself. Then that person doubled over, laughing almost silently before looking up at him with a smile. 

“Holy _shit_ dude! Barry? Barold. That’s gotta be- you didn’t even take five minutes! I’ve had family that have taken literal weeks without realizing shit. I gotta give you an _award_ or something,” this person said, quickly containing their laughter back up again, and yeah, there was a definite difference in the way this person held themself from the way Lup did. 

“Uh, thank you? I mean, I’ll settle for your actual name as a reward if you want,” he said, and now that he knew this wasn’t Lup he was starting to get confused again because who _was it?_

“It’s Taako dog, ya know, Lup’s cooler twin brother?” he said and oh, _oh,_ that made a lot of sense. “And no worries, you’re lucky enough to get both of us on that mission,” he added, actually fucking winking at him as he did.

“Oh, well then I guess I should still um, introduce myself to you. Although I did already do that so- ya know this has gone really bad so far I should probably just go,” he managed out. Taako was back to looking amused again, nodding. 

“Yeah yeah, pretty fucking awful first impression my man, go save face or whatever the fuck,” he said, and Barry had no idea what to say to that. So instead he nodded awkwardly again before turning and leaving. 

It was only after he turned the corner did he realize that he’d gone the exact opposite direction from the way he was supposed to. Turning around, he kept his head down when he had to walk right past Taako again. He could hear the elf cackling behind him as he quickly left, face red and only getting redder. 

He had no idea how he was supposed to survive two months with _both_ of those twins. 

And then two months turned into much, _much_ longer. 

——

Taako hadn’t thought much of the dude in the first three minutes of meeting him. He was the fourth person that day to congratulate him as Lup for getting into the starblaster mission, although admittedly he was the first who was actually going to be leaving the plane too. 

And then Barry had stared at him, his face twisted in confusion before declaring that he wasn’t Lup and Taako was honest to god taken by surprise. He didn’t know who this dude was but now he needed to because he knew Lup well enough to realize Taako wasn’t her and that was incredible. 

“Lup, Lulu, Lupapalooza, The Big Lubizki, Lupasauras Rex, Luppy and th-” he was cut off by his twin putting her hand over his mouth and he just smiled until she pulled her hand away. 

“Yes, Koko?” she asked simply, able to tell that he was very happy for some reason, which wasn’t super common. 

“Okay, so I met this dude, and like, he’s a total fucking dork like you wouldn’t believe. All stuttering introduction and shit, walked away and then had to come back because the doofus went the wrong fucking way, the whole nine yards,” he started to explain. 

“Taako, I love you, you’re my brother. We’re about to leave the planar system for two months, _please_ don’t get infatuated with some random dork right now,” Lup cut him off and Taako made a face of disgust at that.

“No, ew Lup _no._ He’s totally not my type, like he’s a real fucking nerd I can’t stress that enough. Okay, no, there’s a reason I’m telling you this and it is not that,” he defended. Like, he’d gotten the ill advised crush before for sure, but that wasn’t this.

“Mhmm, so what’s the reason then?” she asked, still clearly not buying it.

“Okay, he thought I was you right, like people do all the time and I was playing along like always, as ya do. Except like, he gets three sentences into his introduction and he just looks at me, and I’m trying not to laugh because this dude seems pretty hopeless, but then he fucking _calls me out._ He realized right fucking away that I wasn’t you! How insane is that,” he said, and yeah Lup actually looked surprised there. 

“Wait, are you serious?” she asked and he just nodded. 

“Mhmm, so I’m gonna have to ask you dear sister, who is Barry and why oh why is he able to realize I’m not you so easily?” he asked, smiling brightly again because now _he_ had the upper hand. Instead of flustered though Lup looked kinda confused. 

“Barry? Uh, oh, wait Bluejeans? Fuck yeah, that dude! He’s in a couple of my cohorts, I heard he got onto the mission too,” she said, and Taako raised an eyebrow at that because that seemed awfully simple for a dude who managed to tell them apart so easily. And then he was distracted because wait what did she just wait. 

“Lup, are you telling me this guy’s name is Barry Bluejeans?” he asked and from the smile that spread across his sister’s face he knew he hadn’t misheard. 

“Isn’t it incredible?” she asked, and Taako was left doubled over laughing again. 

“Oh my god, we gotta, fuck, I don’t fucking know. I’m so glad he’s gonna be on the starblaster, we have gotta fuck with this dude,” Taako said in between bouts of laughter. 

“I know! I still can’t believe he actually managed to catch you, that never happens,” Lup said and Taako just nodded. Barry certainly hadn’t pulled his interest in the first quick moments of meeting him, but it was definitely there now. 

He and Lup kept their distance while the final rounds of training went underway. They didn’t want to scare the dude off after all, this was fun that was going to last them a good couple of months. Taako hadn’t been too thrilled with the idea of the mission, but it was Lup’s passion and like fuck was she going off on her own, so he was going to, simple as. There were worst ways of spending his time after all. This could make it kind of interesting though, messing with him and a couple of the other crew members. 

When the mission actually went off though, tormenting a nerd while occasionally getting some actual magic science done was the last thing on Taako’s mind. 

Their world was destroyed. Maybe. Honestly, none of them could be too sure what had happened, but they couldn’t go back. 

Taako stuck by Lup, because that’s what they always did when they were in a new location they couldn’t be certain was safe yet. It was second nature to watch each other’s backs because no one else was going to. It didn’t take too long for their crew to decide the planet they’d landed on was relatively safe, if strange.

There were just animals, and they could talk but none of them could understand their language, for obvious reasons. Still, he and Lup had picked up new languages on the road almost as readily as they’d picked up magic, so when everyone was sitting around trying to figure out what to do they decided fuck it. They were gonna try and learn the language here. If they were stuck here forever they might as well try and get to know the locals and shit. Even if those locals weren’t like, people. 

Taako hadn’t been expecting Barry to walk up to them after they decided that, notebook in hand and nervously asking if he could join them on their attempt to learn the animal language. In that moment Taako had remembered his earlier plans to fuck with this dude for the two months they were gonna be stuck together. Now they were gonna be stuck together for fuck knows how long, and he figured he should let go of his want to mess with the dude. 

He needed something to distract him though, to get his mind off of the fact that he was trapped on this strange planet and everyone he’d ever met (assholes, the most of them) was dead and thank _fuck_ he and Lup had gotten on this mission together, what if one of them had stayed behind? What if they had been separated permanently? 

So yeah, Barold could come along. Taako had no idea if he had a skill for picking up languages or anything useful for this at all, but fuck it. 

It turned out that Barry did have a skill for languages, what he didn’t have a skill for was animals, which was fucking _hilarious._ They’d figured out that nothing on this planet ate meat, and he was still worried. He’d nervously explained that yes, while the animals might not eat you, um, large herbivores are the creatures known to do the most damage to passerby without any proper cause anyway.

So yeah, the dude’s nervousness around the animals was hilarious and he and Lup completely exploited that to try and get a fucking laugh out of this situation. Once they managed to get the mongooses to trust them, sometimes one of the younger ones would let them pick em up and carefully place them on Barry’s shoulders when he wasn’t looking. He’d try so hard not to freak out and would end up going stock still until the mongoose crawled off of him. 

It was amusing if nothing else. That pretty much summed up Barry pretty well. Amusing, if nothing else. 

And then the world ended again, and they were all quick to realize the vicious pattern they were stuck in now, and nothing seemed amusing anymore. 

—

Barry didn’t know how to handle the situation they’d all suddenly found themselves in. Year after year, they’d end up on a new plane with so many wonderful and fascinating things and he’d want to stay and figure out how this place worked, what it’s history was, the ways science and magic had developed if they developed at all, anything and everything he could imagine. 

And year after year, those worlds would be damaged or outright destroyed as his party just barely managed to escape. 

It was horrible. 

He didn’t know how he’d managed to get lucky enough to survive this long. How he’d been one of the few, so very few people in existence to be rewritten every year, so that even if he died he wouldn’t be destroyed. He didn’t now how he’d gotten so lucky to end up with the crew he was with, all such kind people, every one of them understanding the weight this put on all of them and when to try and lift that weight up some and when to just let whoever needed to stew underneath it for a bit. 

He had _no idea_ how he managed to end up lucky enough to be stuck in the same ship as Lup. 

He only admitted to himself that he had a crush after one night on a planet that was hitting Barry in all of the worst ways. It was the most full of life they’d seen since they left their home planet, it was so full of science and magic and good people. 

And they still hadn’t found the light, and Barry didn’t know if these people were going to live and he felt so fucking _powerless._

Lup had found him crying, and he expected for a moment that she was going to tease him. Her and Taako, they teased him a lot, but it was all in good fun. Or at least he liked to believe it was. He really was a nerd, and he couldn’t fault them for pointing that out, especially when they were both so, well, _them._ He'd say otherworldly, only they’d been to multiple other worlds now and Barry had yet to find anything that quite matched up to the twins. 

She hadn’t teased him though, instead she’d sat next to him without saying a word before slinging an arm around his shoulders and pulled him into a small side hug. Barry would’ve expected it to be awkward, but of course nothing Lup did could be awkward.

That was when Barry let himself admit that this was more than admiration for a brilliant and enchanting co-worker. Hell, using the words brilliant and enchanting should’ve probably been what had tipped him off in the first place. But even though he’d admitted it to himself, he sure as fuck wasn’t going to admit it to anyone else. 

He was stuck with these people, and he cared for all of them, and he didn’t want to make things awkward between him and Lup. Besides, it was just a dumb crush. It would go away with time. 

It did not go away with time. If anything, it got _worse._

He tried to ignore it, push it down and continue working on a way to figure out how to finally defeat the hunger once and for all. Sure, that meant spending even more time with Lup, but he couldn’t really complain about that, even though it was a bit counter intuitive. 

Still, as the years went on he began to think of this crew less and less as co-workers and more as family. Anyone they’d had back on their planet was gone after all, and something about thinking of these people as family felt right. 

Barry was pretty sure that was cemented during the year on the beach. They’d been through so much already, and that was the first time they got a chance to stop for a bit. They could enjoy being together for once and not have to worry about the world coming down around them again and again and again. That was all still there, but there was peace enough to ignore it. 

Peace enough to maybe let his guard down a bit. 

Of all the people Barry had intended to tell, Taako had been at the fucking bottom of the list, just barely more acceptable than Lup herself. But despite that he still went and told him. He wasn’t sure why, other than the fact that Taako had needled it out of him, the twins were still almost impossible to say no to after all. 

But it was also something else. He and Taako spent a lot of time together of course, but it was always under those restraints. Under the stress of everything coming down around them in a year long train wreck. They didn’t have that here, and when Taako would laugh at him whenever he fell off of the surfboard the few times he’d managed to talk Barry into getting up on it in the first place, it remember Barry of the way he’d laughed at him when they'd first met. Going to wrong way down the hall and having to come back with his head hung in embarrassment as he went to his actual destination. 

Instead of getting embarrassed and rushing away now though, he’d huff and splash annoyed at Taako. He couldn’t bring himself to be actually annoyed though. It’d been a long time since he’d seen Taako laughing that genuinely. Way too fucking long.

So when Taako pressed him, he ended up admitting that yeah okay he thought Lup was cool and maybe he didn’t want to embarrass himself in front of her. That wasn’t really _admitting_ anything, but Taako had managed to figure him out despite that, and that was exactly what Barry had figured would happened. 

When they left the beach world behind, Barry wasn’t sure if he should say anything. With the reset a part of him felt like none of it had ever happened. 

He wanted to acknowledge it though, and looking at the painting Magnus and Merle were hanging up of all of them that Lucretia had done, and he pulled on the sleeve of Taako’s jacket-robe. 

“Hey, Taako, can I talk to you for a second?” he asked, the elf looking at him and raising an eyebrow. 

“Yeah, sure thing m’dude,” he said before following Barry out of the hanger and out onto the deck. They were still too high up to get a decent look at what this planet would have in store for them, but Barry doubted it would be as kind to them as the last one had been. He doubted they'd ever get that kind of break again. “So, what’s shaking? Why the urgent need for some good old Taako Time?” he asked, leaning back against the railing of the Starblaster. 

“I guess there really uh, wasn’t a reason. I wanted to thank you, mostly,” he said, and Taako seemed pretty amused by that.

“You already thanked me for the whole swimming thing my dude, or did you block all of that conversation from your memory already?” he asked clearly amused and wiggling his eyebrows and yeah okay, there were still some parts of that conversation he’d like to forget. Barry shook his head though, because that wasn’t it.

“No, not for the swimming,” he said, and now he could see the confusion starting to creep onto Taako’s face.

“Oookay then, you’re gonna have to be more specific then Barold, cause I don’t think you’re thanking me for my general existence. Unless you are, in which case, you’re _welcome.”_

“Thanks for being my friend,” Barry blurted out, embarrassment starting to choke him again. Taako looked just as taken by surprise as the first time they met. 

“Er, okay? I mean uh, yeah no totally get it, you’re graced by my friendship and you had to share your adoration and dude don’t make this weird you don’t gotta _thank me_ for being friends,” Taako said, sounding more and more flustered as he spoke and honestly it was rare seeing him on the end of it instead. 

“Yeah sure, just thought I’d say it anyway,” Barry said and Taako nodded hurriedly, pushing himself away from the Starblaster’s railing and heading inside. 

“Right okay we’re friends it’s great never do something that fucking awkward again or I’m transmuting all of your jeans into cargo pants,” he said quickly and Barry would laugh at the threat if he didn’t know Taako 100% meant it. 

Still, he’d said what he wanted to, and maybe their luck would hold out a little longer, fucks knows they deserved it. 

—

Taako did not fucking like this planet. In fact, he’d go so far as to say he hated it and wouldn’t cry if it went by way of the hunger. 

He didn’t appreciate the way it kept them holed up and paranoid all the time, and he certainly didn’t appreciate it making him watch his best friend die.

Which, ugh, yeah that was a thing now wasn’t it? Sure, the whole crew had gotten a lot closer, frustratingly close for Taako sometimes. He’d admitted to Lup a few cycles back, when they lost Cap’n Port about halfway through the year and everyone was left without a real sense of direction that he _cared_ about these people. He couldn’t give a shit about anyone new they met because they’d be gone in a year no matter if they got the light or not. The seven of them were in it together now. though Taako was starting to count on them being there, not just on Lup.

And so it fucking sucked when someone died and they weren’t there anymore and the absence was so obvious.

And some fucking how, Barold J Bluejeans had managed to worm his nerdass way into second place in the People Taako Gives A Shit scale, behind Lup obviously but closer than Taako thought was even possible. He only let himself acknowledge that fact when Barry had nervously stuttered out about how cool he thought Lup was and Taako knew exactly what he meant, and he was perfectly fine with it.

Like, Lup could hold her own, she didn’t need some protective brother looking out for potential suitors or any of that bullshit. Sure, the few times she had dated before Taako might not’ve been the most supportive in the past. It wasn't like Lup didn't act the same way to his dates. It was dumb but Lup was all he had and he didn’t want some jackass take her away. He didn’t want _anyone_ taking Lup away from him, and both of the twins were on the same page there. If whoever they dated wasn’t cool with both of em then it was no fucking go. 

And the idea of Lup and Barry dating didn’t worry Taako at all. Which was fucking freaky. And instead of teasing him Taako gave him his best attempt at some genuine advice. Later he had to sit down and accept the fact that Barry meant a lot to him and he was never going to admit that out loud to another living soul. Except maybe Lup. 

Now they were on this world, and it was dark and cold and hostile, like some greater power realized the chill time they’d just had and felt the need to make up on the suffering double time. 

They’d taken the ship down near where they’d seen the light of creation streak by, but they couldn’t get an exact location on it. So, Taako, Lup, Barry and Magnus were gonna do some scouting out, get a lay of the land and see what was out there on this planet. 

It didn’t take very long for all of them to realize something was seriously wrong with this planet. 

First of all, the terrain seemed impossible to keep straight. They tried their usual forms of marking so they wouldn’t get lost and after maybe an hour of walking everything seemed wrong and they felt turned around as fuck. It seemed like the area around them was changing on it’s own and _trying_ to get them lost. 

Still, that wasn’t the worst thing, they could get back to the ship eventually. The issue was when the surroundings weren’t content with getting them lost, but decided it wanted them fucking dead as well.

Fighting off the trees hadn’t been too hard, they burned easily and Magnus could chop through them like fucking butter. It got more difficult when the rockslides and sinkholes started, but they were still holding their own. No fucking idea which way was back, but they were alive. 

And then out of one of the sinkholes there was a rumbling, and they were all too distracted by the vines that had started to form to try and drag them down to pay it much mind. 

Taako had turned in time to see the water come rushing out in a torrent. In time to try and reach out and grab at Barry’s coat, arm, hand, _anything,_ but he wasn’t fast enough. 

His fingers just managed to brush over the fabric of Barry’s robes, and then the water surged again and he was gone, swept into the sinkhole. It felt wrong, he’d _just taught_ Barry how to swim, using water to kill him seemed especially fucked up.

They managed to get away pretty soon after that. Lup had cleared an area for them to escape and they finally caught sight of the Starblaster. Taako remembered the look of devastation on Lup’s face when she turned back and saw Taako running up to where her and Magnus were alone. He didn’t need to explain what had happened, he was pretty sure it was clear enough on his face for even Magnus to figure out. Lup was still the other part of his soul, she knew. 

They were only a few days into this cycle, and it always fucking _sucked_ to lose someone that early. Taako tried to brush it off as not a big deal, but with these people actually mattering now it meant they saw through that. It didn’t hit him as hard as it hit Lup though, and Taako was pretty sure Barry wouldn’t have much of a problem when he did finally decide to share certain feelings. 

So they spent most of that year inside of the starblaster, not able to get at the light and Taako didn’t really care. This planet sucked. The hunger could have it, he just wanted off of this thing already. He was going stir crazy and Lup was sad and maybe he missed having the dork around after spending pretty much the entire last cycle hanging out. 

When they finally managed to speed away from that fucking hell planet and the light recreated them all, Taako was relieved when Lup pulled him along with her to catch Barry up in a hug. 

He probably would’ve done it anyway, but he appreciated the excuse to not have to draw attention to it.

The next couple of cycles weren’t quite as horrible. They got on a little streak of actually managing to capture the light, which was lucky. They didn’t have another incident of anyone dying _super_ early in the year thankfully. Those years were always the worst. 

Taako was cooking, it’d been a slow day. They hadn’t yet found the light this cycle, and there wasn’t much of a lead on where to get it. So until they figured out something, there wasn’t much to do, and when there wasn’t much to do, Taako cooked. 

Normally Lup was in the kitchen with him, but she’d went out on some recon mission with Davenport and Merle. Cooking was never quite the same without her there, everything took so long for starters. Then there was the absence of another presence in the kitchen. It always made the whole thing feel so empty. 

He didn’t notice Barry coming into the kitchen until he heard the fridge open. “Hey Taako,” he said, grabbing some water out of the fridge. 

“Barold, you doing anything important?” Taako asked, not looking up from his work. 

“I mean, I’m trying to triangulate the trajectory of the light and-” before he could finish his sentence Taako pushed a bowl into his hands. 

“Cool, stir this,” he said, ignoring the look of resignation that passed over his face as he started stirring. 

“Doesn’t Lup usually help you with cooking?” he asked and Taako nodded, opening the oven to check on how the rolls were coming along. It’d been a while since he made a big dinner for everyone. 

“Yeah, but she’s out with the Dad Squad right now so congrats, you’re nominated for new sous chef,” he said. Barry didn’t complain, and he wasn’t the best cook but he could follow directions well enough, and Taako didn’t let him deal with anything that required any actual skills. Still, by the time they were done it’d taken about as long as it would have if Taako had done it himself. 

“Sorry dude, you probably would’ve been better off on your own,” he said, but Taako shrugged. It was still a good as fuck meal, for sure. 

“Eh, it’s wrong to cook alone,” he said simply. 

——

As the cycles went on things got harder. The worlds wouldn’t necessarily be harsher, that always seemed to be up in the air, but the constant dredge of it all, having to run and run and run and never being able to just stand and fight. There was progress, there was always progress but it never seemed enough. It never quite seemed worth it. 

Merle found out the identity of their enemy, and the crew was left for several long, empty cycles without him as he gathered information to maybe try and help them defeat this John. They learn how to handle themselves when the hunger arrives, fewer of them die when retreating year after year. They get better at finding the light, even if sometimes it was just an impossible task. They grow closer. 

And then the year at the conservatory. God, the year at the conservatory. Barry felt bad afterwards, that they weren’t able to save a place so precious to him now. What happened there stayed though, and as close as he and Lup had gotten throughout the years, he still couldn’t believe it. Couldn’t fathom how someone so bright and vibrant and wonderful would be content with him, would see those same qualities in him. 

It was good. Things were getting _better._

And then they weren’t. 

The hunger was growing, that was maybe the only way to describe it. It was growing and getting more powerful and smarter and better at tracking them. It would come earlier, wreck more damage, give them more and more close calls. There was a few times where it was all they could do to escape, and more often than not some of them would be left behind to give the ship a chance to escape. 

He remembered one particular close call, where he and Magnus had been left behind to give some cover. He remembered the utter relief at the sight of the ship careering away from the hunger at just the last moment. He also remembered dying there, but that didn’t matter much at that point. Dying was something he was getting increasingly used to. 

It was nearing the end of the cycle, and Barry was huddled over a table, trying to figure out the precise way the hunger kept on finding them. They had a few good leads, but nothing definitive. 

“How’s it going?” Barry almost jumped at the sudden voice. The twins could be pretty sneaky when they wanted to be. He wasn’t sure if that was Taako’s goal or not, but it certainly worked if it was. 

“Hey, uh, trying some new scans to see if I can figure out something with the hunger,” he said, and maybe he should take a break. He couldn’t remember the last time he had, and that was usually a sign that he needed to stop.

“Mhmm, yeah yeah, when is that not what you’re working on,” he said dismissively, and Barry guessed he was right. He felt like he was close though, like there was something he could do. He just needed one push until he got it, he was sure. 

“I’m going down planet side, come with me,” Taako said, breaking him out of his thoughts. Barry raised an eyebrow, a little surprised by that. They’d gotten the Light of creation about a month ago, and there wasn’t too much interesting on this planet for them to do, so they spent a lot of time up on the Starblaster until they needed to restock or something.

“Is Lup coming with you?” he asked, but Taako shook his head. 

“Nah, she’s in a Taako induced forced sleepy time. I swear you two are both hopeless without me,” he said and yeah, him and Lup had been focusing on their research a lot lately. Taako was usually the one to drag them out of it when they needed a break, like now he supposed. 

“Do we need to make a supply run?” he asked and Taako rolled his eyes. 

“No, dude I’m just going stir crazy up on this ship and you need to get away from those fucking papers for five minutes,” he said and Barry relaxed some at the slight way Taako frazzled. That was about as close as he would get to admitting that he wanted to hang out. 

“Yeah, okay let me go get my coat, this planet is cold, right?” he asked and Taako was looking at him like he was completely hopeless again. 

“Fuck, I need to drag you and Lup out more often, yes it’s cold,” he said, and Barry ignored his frustration and went to get his coat.  
The world was about as boring as Barry remembered it, but honestly Taako could make anything interesting. 

“Hey Barold, you got some roguey skills don’t ya?” he asked and Barry shrugged. 

“I mean, my roommate back at the IPRE taught me thieves cant and how to pick locks and things, it’s not anything impressive,” he said, and Taako didn’t seem too interested in the details. 

“Mhm, cool cool, wanna see if we can pull off a scam me and Lup used to do as kids?” he asked and Barry felt like the smart answer was probably ‘no.’ 

An hour later they were running back to the Starblaster with some positively hideous clothes neither of them needed and the knowledge that they couldn’t head back to that town anytime soon. 

“Okay, okay in my defense that worked _way_ better when we were kids. Also when Lup wouldn’t knock over a whole fucking rack of clothes onto the sales-dude,” Taako said between bouts of laughter. 

“I told you I wasn’t actually good at this stuff, I never needed to use it in real life,” Barry defended, but he was smiling despite himself. This was just stupid fun that he hadn’t let himself get into in a long, long time now.

“Yeah, but you should’ve put an emphasis on just _how bad_ you are dude, like shit,” Taako teased, shifting through the shitty clothes he was holding as they walked. “Might be able to turn this into something decent, the fabric isn’t too bad of a base,” he said, and Barry just shrugged. 

“I’m pretty sure none of this was necessary but sure hope you can find some use out of it,” he said with a shrug. 

“Can’t always stick to doing things that are necessary, sometimes you just gotta do shit, fuck with people, ya know?” he said and Barry shrugged. He probably didn’t know, but that was why he hung out with Taako. The elf had a way of getting him out of his own little world. 

“And ya know,” Taako continued, sounding just that edge less dramatic from how he normally did. That slightest bit more serious. “Since you and Lup are finally, _finally_ official and shit, you’re pretty much my brother so we’re like contractually obligated to do stupid shit like this, sorry I don’t make the rules,” he said. 

Barry looked down, trying to hide the dumb smile that crossed his face at that. Not because he was particularly embarrassed for once, but because he knew Taako would get flustered if he drew attention to how important what he was saying was. 

“I guess I’ll find _some_ way to stand being brothers with you. I’ll have to ask Lup for tips on how to survive,” he joked, throwing an arm up to block the handful of clothes Taako threw at him. 

“Excuse you! I am a _delight_ to be related to! Frankly you should be on your knees thanking me for this fucking _gift_ I’m bestowing upon you right now, ungrateful asshole,” Taako yelled after him as Barry started running towards the Starblaster again. Every so often a shirt or coat would wiz by his head, and he had to stop and laugh when he looked back to see Taako stopping every so often to pick up the clothes he’d thrown. 

“Oh yeah laugh it up, I worked hard to get this shit I’m not losing it for you,” he grumbled, and Barry went back to help him pick up the clothes. 

“Hey Taako? Thanks,” he said, and Taako just huffed, pushing some of the clothes into his arms. 

“Yeah yeah, you can prove that thanks by carrying this for me,” he said, and Barry didn’t argue with him. They were pretty much at the Starblaster anyway. 

The next few cycles continued to get rougher and rougher, and there still didn’t seem to be an end in sight. 

And then Barry figured it out. That one last push to get him to a breakthrough. They couldn’t risk everyone dying. They couldn’t risk someone being left alone for an entire year again, not after the judges. 

And he was going to make sure that didn’t ever happen again.

——

Lup had explained it to him, and Taako knew some things from his own magical knowledge, and it wasn’t safe but they were so sure. Lup and Barry had promised him, they could do this. This would make it safer, this would give them a fighting chance against the hunger. 

But he was still absolutely fucking terrified. 

This was Lup and Barry. This was his family, Taako had admitted to himself just how fucking important they both were to him a while ago. If this didn’t work, Taako didn’t know what was going to happen. Best case scenario, he loses them for the rest of this cycle and they’re still gone whenever they die in a future one. Worst case scenario… 

Lup wouldn’t talk about the worst case scenario, but it was all Taako could think about as he watched the red robed forms of their very souls rise up above their bodies, crackling with powerful shoots of pure arcane energy. 

And then Barry lowered down, and a small part of Taako could breathe in. He still had his brother. They were halfway there please god let this work. 

And then Lup was back in her body, and the two were helping each other up on shaky feet and laughing like they couldn’t believe it had worked. 

Taako didn’t say anything, running up the hill and knocking the two of them right back to the ground when he slammed into them with a hug. He didn’t give a shit, they deserved it after that fucking bullshit. It didn’t seem like they actually minded though, from the way they hugged him back.

“Don’t do that again you assholes,” he mumbled into Lup’s shoulder. He was trying not to think about how close he could’ve come to losing her. If maybe his best day ever wasn’t enough. That didn’t happen, she was still here. To fucking stay, apparently. 

“Sorry bro-bro, won’t happen again,” Lup said quietly, and Taako shuddered against the two of them because he knew she was telling the truth but it was still so fucking much. Taako knew at the end of the day he didn’t have shit. Lup and Barry could do this because they were so fucking strong, they cared so much. Taako wasn’t like that. Sometimes Lup would have to remind him to curb the collateral damage, and sometimes Barry would look at him in shock at how easily he could turn away from a world being devoured by the hunger. The longer their journey lasted the worse it was, Taako couldn’t care about people who were as permanent to him as dust. 

It was like a fucking tipped scale though, because as he cared less and less about the people and the world’s they visited, he cared more and more for the people on his ship. His home. His fucking _family_ and losing any one of them would be like tearing a part of him to shreds but if he lost Lup and Barry Taako was certain there’d just be nothing left to him. 

But it worked, and they were closer to the end. 

And then they made their items at the hanging arcaneum and decided to go forth with Lup and Barry’s plan, and they were closer to the end. 

And then they were at cycle 99, and they were at the end. 

The actual creation of the grand relics had been fast, they’d had the groundwork all planned for cycles after all. Putting them out into the world had been fast as well, feeling almost inconsequential, the way they tossed away the items. 

When they started to take a hold of the world it felt anything but inconsequential. 

It wasn’t the hunger though, and so it had to be better. 

The skill of not caring had never come more in handy for Taako than in that year of watching the world slowly destroy itself with the items they created. It didn’t matter. It meant the plane would survive, for a manner of survival at least. It meant the hunger wouldn’t win this time. It meant his family was safe. 

Until it didn’t, because one morning he woke up, yawning as he walked into the kitchen on the Starblaster. He hadn’t even noticed the note at first, going to make himself some coffee. When he did see it, he just put it back down and continued to go about his morning. It was a little strange, but Lup could handle her own. He trusted her. 

Which made it even worse when she didn’t come back. 

—

They couldn’t find her and it didn’t make any sense. 

There wasn’t any panic at first, they didn’t realize anything was wrong. Now Barry wondered if he started looking sooner things might’ve been better. If he could've found her and things would be alright. There wasn’t anything he could do about that though, not unless he wanted to go track down Magnus’s relic at least. No one had heard hide or hair of that one since it went out into the world though anyway. 

When they started to realize something was up him and Taako had gotten up and began searching without a word. They checked the most likely spots first, the areas of Neverwinter the group had frequented the few times they chose to go down to the world, recent spots where the grand relics had been used, especially Lup’s. Anywhere that seemed like it would be a particular draw to her. 

Each place turned up empty. 

They started to get a system in place. The others would help look of course, but it was mainly Barry and Taako. They’d find some lead that seemed promising and head down. They tried to figure out how exactly to pinpoint her, and eventually they came up with casting locate object on the umbrastaff. There was no way she wouldn’t have it with her after all. So Taako would focus on that while Barry would talk to the locals, trying to get some lead on someone who might’ve seen her. 

It never worked. Taako caught no sign of the staff, and any leads Barry managed to drum up never panned out. 

_Months_ passed. Barry didn’t know what to fucking do. 

He and Taako were down in Neverwinter right now, at the end of another false trail. There’d been rumors of another glassing, and there hadn’t been a new once since Lup had disappeared, so they went to check it out. It had turned out to be some maniac sorcerer who destroyed the town with a meteor storm spell, and Taako and Barry had quickly killed the fucker, but that didn’t solve their problem any. 

“Well, that was a huge waste of time,” Taako grumbled as they started out of the ruined town. 

“We had to check out the possibility,” Barry said, trying not to feel too discouraged. If nothing else, they just stopped a major douche, Lup would approve of that. 

“I know,” Taako said, and he sounded so fucking _lost._ This wasn’t the longest Lup had been away from them, not yet. There was one particularly bad year where she’d died a month in, from a simple mistake too. A rough fall the wrong way in an otherwise manageable fight, no one had even realized she was down until she wouldn’t get back up. 

This was starting to near that length though, and while before there was always a finish line, a point to look towards where they knew they’d get her back, here there wasn’t. Barry had no fucking idea how long it would be before they found her. If they found her.

“We’ll get her back Taako,” Barry said, needing to reassure that fact right now, because he wasn’t entirely sure if he believed it anymore or not. 

“I know my dude,” Taako repeated, not sounding anymore convinced. “It’s just… why the fuck is she taking so long? She knows we gotta be worried sick, right?” he said, and Barry sighed. 

“You know how Lup can get when she wants to do something, she doesn’t- she forgets about everything else that needs done, when she has an idea in her head. I’m sure it’s just, it’s gotta be something like that,” he said, and god he hoped that was true. He hoped somewhere out there, Lup was safe, single-mindedly doing whatever plan she’d set forth for herself. 

“Well you’re certainly right about that,” Taako said. Barry didn’t notice he’d stopped walking until he looked besides him and Taako was no longer there. Glancing back the wizard was standing a few steps away, staring down for a moment with the wide brim of his hat covering up his face. When he looked back up at Barry there was an expression there he couldn’t quite read. 

Thinking back on Lup’s face, Barry honestly couldn’t believe someone could mix the two up. 

“Thanks,” Taako said, surprising him. 

“For what?” he asked, because Taako didn’t say thanks often. He thanked people in other ways, things that wouldn’t draw attention to the fact that he was doing it. 

“Just, for ya know. Being here. Couldn’t have made it this far without you and shit. Not on my own,” Taako said, and the smile that crossed Barry’s face felt broken. They both just felt _broken._

“That’s what family is for man,” Barry said simply. Taako shrugged at that, but he didn’t argue or brush it off, which was pretty much a full agreement for him. 

A week later, Barry would be up on the Starblaster’s deck and he’d fall into a panic at Taako’s question and the disappearance of Lup’s face from his memory. The death falling off of the deck into the sky was the most relieved he’d ever been to die, especially as the memories flew back to him. 

He could remember Lup’s face, and it was so different from Taako’s. 

Taako, who’d just looked so confused and horrified and _blank._ Barry could remember how he’d looked when they first met. The amusement, the careful control, everything that embarrassed the fuck out of Barry at the time but that he’d come to love about his brother. 

All of that was gone, and even with his memory returned, Barry wasn’t sure if he knew the elf that had been left up on the ship that had been their home anymore. 

——

Taako didn’t know where he was, or how he got here. 

He did know two things. 

His name was Taako, and he just killed someone.

He didn’t know _why._ He remembered the man begging, pleading but when he tried to focus on what he’d been saying it was all just _static._ Everything was. He couldn’t- he couldn’t focus on the world around him. He couldn’t focus on himself, his life, _anything._

He tried to remember the face of the dude he just killed. He could remember a smile, and glasses, and other things but when he tried to put them together into a face it wouldn’t fucking work. 

“Taako? Taako oh dear, oh gods don’t tell me it was too much for you too. I can’t- Not with you and Davenport,” a voice said, and Taako looked up to see some woman he didn’t recognize. 

“Who the fuck are you?” he managed to say, his voice quaking in a way he instantly hated. He wasn’t supposed to sound like that. He couldn’t sound vulnerable. 

“I’m- I’m here to help, it’s going to be alright now,” the woman said, but Taako instantly drew away. People didn’t offer help without any sort of ulterior motive. They always wanted something, and right now Taako had no fucking idea what he even had to give.

“Fuck off, I don’t- I’m fine, I don’t need your help. I just need to…” he trailed off, not sure what he needed to do. He got up to his feet and the woman tried to help him but he just swatted at her with the stick he was holding. The wand? Did he know magic? He must’ve, that was how he killed that dude after all. He couldn’t remember learning any though. 

“Taako, it’s going to be okay. I’ve, I mean, you’ve gotten a stagecoach together for your new cooking show. We’re on our way there now, there’s no reason to worry,” the woman said, and Taako frowned. He didn’t know what she was talking about, but cooking. He could remember cooking. 

“Is it just me?” he asked, and the woman seemed confused by that.  


“What do you mean?” she asked and honestly Taako wasn’t entirely sure. 

“Is it- Am I the only one doing the cooking show? It is just Taako?” he asked, and he swore the woman looked close to tears as she nodded. That was a weird response. 

“Yes, it’s just you. We can- we can go about hiring a stage hand for you, once we get down. Someone to help you run the show, maybe security,” she offered and yeah okay, Taako liked that idea. He’d always cooked alone, but cooking wasn’t something you should do by yourself. 

It was too bad he killed that guy. Maybe he would’ve made a decent bodyguard. Maybe not though. Taako couldn’t remember his face, but he was pretty sure he looked like a huge dork.

**Author's Note:**

> this ended up muuuuch longer than i intended it to be, but also gotta have lots of that good good barry and taako friendship. these boys mean the world to me and i've wanted to write something about them for a while now. 
> 
> As always thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
